


Fine Print

by NK (NKfloofiepoof)



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Drama, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-27
Updated: 2012-07-27
Packaged: 2017-11-10 19:56:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NKfloofiepoof/pseuds/NK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's always the fine print, mech. You should know."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fine Print

**Author's Note:**

> Camfield roped a bunch of us in [Shibara](http://shibara-ffnet.livejournal.com)'s Livestream into doing a prompt exchange. There were five of us total – one gave everyone a prompt, and the other four had 15 minutes to write something for it. Unfortunately, the 15-minute time limit was pretty strict – we could finish sentences, but we couldn't finish where were going with what we were writing, so these are all really rough and end rather abruptly.

For the tenth or twelfth time, Ricochet wondered how he had gotten himself into this situation. It had seemed innocuous enough: he needed an upgrade to his visor. He was scheduled to enroll into the Autobot militia in the next week, and he knew from past upgrades that it would take that long for the upgrade to settle. He did some research, asked around some, and discovered a mod shop that would perform the upgrade he needed for a price he could afford.

He needed it. He wanted to do his part for the defense of Cybertron. He wanted to ensure his enrollment was accepted, and to do that, he knew the better quality his modifications, the more spectrums he could see with his visor, the more information he could display on his HUD at one time, the more likely the Autobot army would be to enlist him immediately.

He needed it.

He was a fool.

“It’s always the fine print, mech,” the smooth voice of the salesmech purred against his audio horn. Ricochet lay helpless across the mod table, magcuffs securing his limbs, but even without them, he knew he would be unable to move. His motor relays had been severed - it was standard procedure for any upgrade, so it had not alarmed him when it happened. What had alarmed him was the plug in the back of his head, the infiltrating coding cutting through his firewalls. His vocalizer would no longer work - the only way he could voice his distress was his rapidly whirring fans and trembling plating.

Ricochet was a fool. He had signed the consent form without reading anything beyond the negotiated price and the main points of the upgrade. He had assumed it would be the same as all the other upgrades he had bought in the past. As new code scrolled across one side of his HUD, the contract scrolled down the other as the sadistic mech “upgrading” him pointed out what he had agreed to.

He would get his upgrade. He would get even more than he paid for - modifications and specialties that extended past the visor upgrades and extended into his circuitry and his frame, upgrades which would guarantee him a place in the Autobot army, not just as a grunt but even higher for their rarity and usefulness, but he would not be helping Cybertron as he had hoped.

Darkness was clawing at the edges of his vision even though all he could see was the ceiling and gleeful purple optics staring down at him. Despite the growing horror and despair, some part of him accepted what was happening to him, accepted that he was powerless to stop it from happening. He was being locked away. He could still see out of his own visor, he could still hear with his own audios, but he could no longer speak or control his own body.

Ricochet would not be the one to join the Autobot forces. Jazz would. Jazz, the Decepticon spy. Jazz, the Decepticons’ secret weapon.

All Ricochet could do was scream inside his new prison built from his own mind.

**Author's Note:**

> The actual prompt Shibara gave me was Swindle/Jazz, but I didn't tag Jazz because I didn't want to spoil the way I twisted it around.


End file.
